Rare photographs have emerged of the day Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996 after his 11 year exile.

Jobs, who died in 2011 at the age of 56 after a long battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer, started Apple Computer with friend Steve Wozniak in his parents' garage in 1976.

He left in 1985 after a power struggle with the board.

Tim Holmes, who was working late at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California on Dec 20, 1996, released some old photographs of the night Jobs was invited back to the company more than a decade later.

Writing on his Flickr page, Mr Holmes said: "My manager came rushing past my office door saying to come with him to Town Hall, Apple's theatre for announcements, company meetings and the like. It was clearly not a company meeting.

"I called Mitch, my wife, who also worked there at the time, and told her meet me there. We had no idea what was about to happen."

Mr Holmes took with him his Apple QuickTake camera, a product Jobs got rid of soon after.

The pictures show Jobs wearing what appears to be a bright purple jacket.(Tim Holmes/www.tentoncreative.com)

The pictures show Jobs wearing what appears to be a purple jacket.

But Mr Holmes wrote: "The colours are way off due to the poor quality of digital cameras in 1996. Steve's jacket was black in real life."

A few years later Jobs began the the roll-out of products like the iPod and iPhone that would gain worldwide popularity.

Mr Holmes told the Telegraph he came across the old photographs by accident.

"I've been surprised by the attention to these photos because I've had them forever. To be honest I was looking for a new headshot for LinkedIn when I ran across these and just decided to post them to Flikr."